In This House

Mike Reid & Sarah Schlesinger were the Lyricist, Composer and Co-bookwriters for In This House and the Composer and Lyricist for The Wind in the Willows Christmas, both of which had their world premieres at Two River Theater. They have also written the score for Casanova Returns, which won the Global Search for New Musicals. The team’s opera Different Fields was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild. They are currently writing The Last Day, a new musical commissioned by Penn State University. Mike and Sarah have received the Kleban Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, a Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Theater Foundation Award, the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, and Chicago’s Jeff Award for best original musical. Mike is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter. His songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Adele (I Can’t Make You Love Me), Anita Baker, Kenny Rogers, Wynonna, Alabama, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Bette Midler, and Tim McGraw. Sarah Schlesinger is the Associate Dean of Performing Arts and Chair of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.

May Adrales is a director, artistic leader, educator and mother; she has directed over 25 world premieres. Her work has been seen most recently at Second Stage (Rajiv Joseph’s Letters of Suresh) Manhattan Theater Club (Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone, and Poor Yella Rednecks, Felicia Anchuli King’s Golden Shield) Signature Theater, LCT3, The Public Theater, WP, New York Theater Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep and South Coast Rep. She was awarded the prestigious Ammerman Award at Arena Stage and Theater Communications Group’s Alan Schneider award for freelance directors. She is a Drama League Directing Fellow, Van Lier Directing Fellow, WP Lab Director, SoHo Rep Writers/Directors Lab and New York Theater Workshop directing fellow, TCG New Generations Grantee, SDC Denham Fellowship and Paul Green Directing Award.  She served as an Associate Artistic Director at Milwaukee Rep; Artistic Associate at The Playwrights Center; Artistic Associate at The Public Theater; and Director of Artistic Programs and Artistic Director at The Lark. She serves on the board of Theater Communications Group. May has directed and taught at Juilliard, Harvard/ART, ACT, Fordham, NYU and Bard College. May has served on faculty at the Yale School of Drama and Brown/Trinity MFA program. MFA, Yale School of Drama. She is currently the Director of the Theatre Program/Assistant Professor at Fordham University. (www.mayadrales.net)

Lee Savage previously designed Opus and In This House for Two River. New York: Muscles in Our Toes, Sunset Baby, and Thinner than Water (Labyrinth); Collapse (Women’s Project); All-American (LCT3); The Dream of the Burning Boy and Ordinary Days (Roundabout); Oohrah! (Atlantic); The Bereaved (Partial Comfort); punkplay (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Asolo Rep, Chautauqua Theater Company, Dallas Theater Center, Glimmerglass Festival, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington National Opera, Westport Country Playhouse, Wilma Theater, Yale Rep and others. International: The Gate (Dublin, Ireland), Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Awards: NAACP: Satchmo at the Waldorf (Wallis Annenberg); Helen Hayes: Much Ado About Nothing; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (nom); Richard III (nom) (all Shakespeare Theatre Company); Connecticut Critics Circle: The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Yale Rep). Affiliations: Member of Wingspace Theatrical Design. Instructor: Yale School of Drama Design Department and Rhode Island School of Design. Training: Rhode Island School of Design: BFA; Yale School of Drama: MFA.

Gina Scherr previously designed In This House and The Electric Baby at Two River. Recent credits include On Golden Pond at Bucks County Playhouse and Awake and Sing for NAATCO at The Public Theater. New York designs include productions at Roundabout Underground, City Center, The Women’s Project, The Kitchen, Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, PS122, La MaMa, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Company XIV and The New School. Regional credits include productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe, Milwaukee Rep, Asolo Rep, Weston Playhouse, and Yale Rep. Internationally, Gina’s designs have been seen in Ireland, Sweden, Edinburgh, South Korea, Canada, and Romania. Gina is a member of Wingspace Theatrical Design. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Danny Larsen Orchestrations/Copyist: A Wind in the Willows Christmas and In This House (Two River Theater); Zombie in Love (Oregon Children’s Theatre); The Butterfly Girl (Vital Theatre Company); Catch the Wind (Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival); The Hinterlands (musical web series); Cloaked (Village Theatre, CAP21); The Yellow Wood (Contemporary Classics). Composer/Lyricist: Catch the Wind; The Hinterlands (nominated for four IAWTV Awards); Cloaked (2011 Jonathan Larson Grant, 2011 Kleban Prize); The Yellow Wood (2006 Richard Rodgers Development Award, 20016 Daryl Roth Award, 2007 Best Music Award at NYMF, 2008 NAMT Festival Participant); Zombie In Love (2014 Best Original Score and Best Original Script – Drammy Awards, Portland Area Musical Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Musical); The Butterfly Girl. Danny is currently working on a new musical with collaborator Michelle Elliott called Hart Island about New York City’s public burial ground. The show was shortlisted for the Kevin Spacey Foundation Artists of Choice Award in 2015 and will have two staged readings later this year. MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

Tara Rubin Casting Selected Broadway: King Kong (upcoming), Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, The Band’s Visit, Prince of Broadway, Indecent, Bandstand, Sunset Boulevard, Miss Saigon, Dear Evan Hansen, A Bronx Tale, Cats, Falsettos, Disaster!, School of Rock, Les Misérables, The Heiress, The Phantom of the Opera, Billy Elliot, Shrek, Spamalot, …Spelling Bee, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys. Off-Broadway: Smokey Joe’s Café; Jersey Boys; Here Lies Love; Love, Loss, and What I Wore  Selected Regional: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Asolo Rep. www.tararubincasting.com

Whitney McAnally has previously stage managed Much Ado about Nothing, Candida, and Opus at Two River. She spent 10 seasons as a resident stage manager at Milwaukee Repertory Theater where she worked on more than 35 productions, including The Normon Conquests, Escape from Happiness, Tartuffe, Half Life, The Magic Fire, Work Song, and The Blonde Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead. Regionally she has also stage managed at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Madison Repertory Theatre, Austin Lyric Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. Whitney just returned from her 11th summer season at Cincinnati Opera, where she stage managed A Flowering Tree and The Magic Flute. This is for Raymond, who brought me here to New Jersey in the first place.